Nugent Is Useful As Target Man

15 November 2016

Ben Nugent could be used as emergency striker again after impressive end to the Plymouth game.

Steve Davis revealed that he and his coaching staff have done some extensive work with Ben Nugent operating as a target man. As Crewe Alexandra chased the game against Plymouth Argyle at the weekend, Nugent was pushed forward to try and cause mayhem with his heading ability. Nugent won the majority of his headers and was rather unfortunate that one of them didn’t drop invitingly to a Crewe shirt.

Crewe certainly had some joy against the league leaders by going more direct and Davis says it could be a useful option if the Alex are chasing a goal against Cheltenham this evening in the FA Cup.

The Alex boss told crewealex.net: “We did some work with Ben as a centre-forward because we don’t have a target man at the club. It is not the Crewe way and not our style but for the last 10 or 15 minutes when you are chasing a game, Ben can be useful with his height and his physicality. He caused a bit of mayhem.

“He won almost every header on Saturday and we just didn’t get on those knockdowns. We are not that good at doing that because we are not taught to do it but Ben did cause some panic in their defence on Saturday.

“If he can win 9 out 10 headers and he stops the opposition from heading it away then it has to be something we can use. “